The present invention pertains to an airfoil of an aircraft, to a high-lift system, as well as to an aircraft with the high-lift system.
US 2006/0022093 A1 describes an interconnection system for flaps which are located side-by-side, on an aircraft wing.
Airfoils of aircraft, e.g., winged aircraft, feature a main wing with at least one aerodynamic body that can be adjusted relative to the main wing and respectively has an aerodynamically active profile. It is common practice to provide a plurality of aerodynamic bodies that can be adjusted relative to the main wing and are arranged adjacent to one another transverse to the chord direction of the main wing such that a gap is formed between the facing ends of the outer shell or between the facing front sides of the aerodynamic bodies, wherein said gap is variable due to the adjustability of the aerodynamic bodies. The aerodynamic bodies may consist of flaps such as, e.g., ailerons, spoilers or high-lift flaps or even of slats. The airfoil usually features a wing unit, to which the aerodynamic bodies are coupled in an adjustable fashion. In this case, the wing unit forms a stationary system or reference system referred to the movable wing components.
In known airfoils with high-lift flaps, these flaps are simultaneously adjusted equidirectionally, wherein a downwardly directed flap excursion takes place. Due to the shape of the main wing, the high-lift flaps are not adjusted parallel to one another such that the adjacently positioned front sides of the high-lift flaps move relative to one another and the size and the shape of the variable gap change. If the high-lift flaps are in a zero degree position, in which the high-lift flaps are retracted, the mutual distances between the front sides on the front and rear edges and therefore the gap can be very small and approximately equal to zero. When the high-lift flaps are extended, the gap being formed between the high-lift flaps can be significantly enlarged depending on the position of extension or the state of adjustment of the high-lift flaps.
In a high-lift flap that is positioned, e.g., near an outer [text missing], i.e., near the fuselage or the wing end, such that its front side is positioned adjacent to a component of the fuselage or a component of the main wing, a gap exists between the component of the fuselage or the main wing. This gap also varies with respect to its size and its shape depending on the state of adjustment of the high-lift flap.
Such a gap impairs the aerodynamic quality of the wing, i.e., the entire wing arrangement, particularly if it exceeds a certain size. For these reasons, it is desirable to avoid or to prevent said gap as far as possible.
Sealing devices known from the general state of the art seal the movable wing components relative to one another or the movable wing components relative to a stationary structural component by means of special deformable sealing profiles. However, the limits of such a sealing concept are exceeded if significant variations in the size and shape of the gap occur as described above. An effective gap seal cannot be realized with sufficient quality in this case. In addition, the deformation of the sealing profiles leads to an undesirable and likewise disadvantageous change of the contour of the aerodynamic profile in the gap region.